Intersex Human Rights Australia

IHRA is delighted to announce the appointment of Mauro Cabral Grinspan as Principal Consultant, and Project Coordinator for a new international project aimed at dismantling human rights violations in medical settings on people with innate variations of sex characteristics. Like all our staff appointments, this is for a part-time role. IHRA would like to express our profound gratitude to the international donor for this project.

Mauro is Argentinian and currently lives in Belgium. Over the past 25 years, he has focused his work as an advocate, researcher, writer, and trainer on bodily diversity issues, including those faced by intersex, trans, and fat people. He started his involvement with intersex advocacy in the late 1990s, and has remained a leader in our movement since.

Following a decade of national and regional organizing, Mauro co-founded GATE in 2009, and served as its Co-Director until 2017, and as its Executive Director until the beginning of 2022. After that, he served as Senior Officer for Gender Justice and Equity at GPP (Global Philanthropy Project) until September 2023; he remains with GPP as a research consultant. Mauro also serves as an Editorial Team member at Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters, and as International Advisory Board member at the LGBT Program at Human Rights Watch. He also chairs the Advisory Board at the INIA (Intersex – New Interdisciplinary Approaches) Project.

Over the past 20 years, Mauro has contributed decisively to the introduction of intersex issues at the United Nations. He participated in the elaboration of the Yogyakarta Principles in 2006 and, with Morgan Carpenter, in the drafting of the Yogyakarta Principles Plus 10 in 2017; he is a signatory of both. Mauro has also participated in the elaboration and revision of several international reports, including WHO’s report on Sexual health, human rights, and the law. On behalf of GATE, and in collaboration with Morgan Carpenter, he participated in initiatives on the revision and reform of International Classification of Diseases codes relating to innate variations of sex characteristics (see, for example, our 2015 submission, 2019 joint statement and related media statement).

At the national level, Mauro contributed to the drafting and passing of the Argentinian Gender Identity Law and co-authored the Argentinian Bill on the Comprehensive Protection on Sex Characteristics.

Mauro studied history at the National University of Córdoba (Argentina) and has continued postgraduate studies in philosophy and gender studies. He has written, translated, and edited extensively on trans, intersex topics and other bodily diversity issues; every year, he teaches open seminars on intersex issues. At this moment, his research is focused on the impact of anti-gender movements on intersex people and their access to justice, truth, and reparations.

Mauro can be reached at mauro.cabralgrinspan@ihra.org.au.